NORTHEASTERhT FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION 

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania 

No* 31 

April 1954 

mprovement Cutti- OR Fanr, 

-- 

Woodlands Bring GoodDividends 

West Virginia farmers own cns-.tE-rd of the forest 

land in the State---more fi.lan 3 million acres. If these 

woodland areas were given the sanie attention and care that 

is given to cropland, within a fea years West Virginia farm 

forests could be producing thei~ proportionate share of the 

farm income. Yet the farm mods are almost completely 

neglected. 

To determine what growth and income could be obtained 

from an annual harves t on managed small forests, two areas 

of 31 acres each on the Fernow Ekperinental Forest were set 

aside for study. The areas selected represented two differ-. 

ent stages in the recovery of cut -over, burned-.over forest 

land. Or, these two areas the original net volumes per acre 

of all trees 6 inches or more in dj-meter at breast height 

(~nternational &-inch rule) were as f nllows : 

Forest No. 1 Forest No. 2 

(kard feet) (board feet) 

Merchantable trees 8,487 12,1r39 

Cyll trees 839 1 i. CI -', - - --. J-'- 

Total volume per ecrs 9,326 13,781 

Four annual conditioning or salvage cuts have been 

made on ea h area (table 1). The first three cuts have been 

described. f In the fourth cut, made during the winter of 

1952-1953, an amount of timber equal to znnual growth was 

removed. Mine timbers and sawlogs were taken from (1) defective trees, (2) weed trees, and (3) trees that were suppressed and would probably die before that portion of the 

stand would be logged again. 

In the first cut, the 2-man logging crew used crosscut saws and axes; skidding in Forest No. 1 was done with a 

team or horses. But, since farmers are tending t6 use more 

power tools, a TD-9 tractor and gasoline saws were used for 

all the other logging (table 2). Weather conditions were 

IT deit man, Sidney. Mmagement for farm forests. 

W. Va. Conserv. 16 (11) : 20-23, illus. 1953. 
1 Farm 1 :aw; [ E!i; 1 Mine 1 Pulp- 1 SelEnf 1 

forest Props wood price 

I 

Board Board Linear 5-foot 

No. 1 13,300 4,761 4,613 8 

No. 2 25,290 3,770 860 12 599*86 904.54 1 I Total 38,590 8,531 5,473 20 1,504.40 

I lprice received at roadside. where thev were sold. 

1 Table 2.--0utlavs for four annual cuttin~s on 

Item 

1 I Forest No. 1 Forest No. 2 

Hand-logging: 

Man-hours 316 276 

Horse-hours 3 6 0 

Power-logging: 

Man-hours 274 2 90 

Tractor-hours 11 41 

Road-building : 

Man-hours 21 31 

Tractor-hours 5 10 

Totals : 

Man-hours 611 587 

Tractor-hours 16 51 

Horse-hours 3 6 0 

I not unusual for this area during any of the logging operations. 

Assuming that a forest owner had used his own labor, 

ditional hired hands, extra horse- f eed, gasoline, oil, and 

repairs. Under such conditions (and includin~ one hired 

I been $341.79 on Porest N;. 1 and $500.69 on ~brest No. 2. 

I 

His cash income would have been $599.86 from Forest No. 1 

and $904.54 from Forest No. 2. 

After the fifth cut, to be made in the winter of 

1953-54, the stand will be re-inventoried to determine its 

rate of growth and the improvement in stand quality due to I removal of defective trees. Growth of the young trees indiI cates that larger cuts can be made in the future. Iucome 

should also increase because of the better aualitv and sixe 

AGRICULTURE-FOREST SERVICE-UPPER DARBY